The Great Outdoors

turbo

Due to Evo's silence, I am concerned that she might be considering a winter ascent of Mount Sunflower. I pray that she does not attempt an ascent of the north face! We will lose a mentor for sure!

Gokul43201

Yes, one might get the impression from my pics that it was a lovely, warm day in the mountains. But you certainly wouldn't find Bambi prancing around anywhere here. The following pictures might help dispel any feelings of warm fuzziness created by the previous pictures.

This sign is what you see just before you go above treeline:



And this is me, on the summit:



Crisp and sunny != warm and cozy.

turbo

Very nice summit day, off-season, Gokul!

Actually, I'm sure that there were skiers in Tuckerman and Huntingon ravines doggedly hiking and skiing to get some thrills that no lift-ticket could provide.

Dembadon

Excellent shots, Goku!

I've never been to the Northeast, but it is definitely on my outdoor "to-do" list.

joncolumn

Where was this picture taken!? Quite a unique setting, Id love to go please help! :)

Astronuc

Photo Gallery of European Mountain areas courtesy of National Geographic

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com...ntains-photos/

Gokul43201

This weekend I traveled to a corner region in one of the US States, and visited a National Forest, a National Memorial, a National Grassland, and a National Park.

Pictures coming soon, but until that time, can anyone guess which state I visited?

Dembadon

California!

Let me guess the specific places:

- Yosemite (Park)
- Sequoia/Mendocino (Forest)
- Butte (Grassland)
- Not sure about the memorial; there are a few in CA.

Gokul43201

Nope, it's not CA. Note that I mentioned the National Things were all to be found near one corner of the state.

A colleague I was talking to earlier today referred to this region as the "interesting part of [state]". (i.e., the rest of the state is relatively boring, if you ask him or me)

Astronuc

That could be any of the Plains states from OK to ND and AR to MN, and eastern parts of CO, WY, MT, or western parts of WI and IL.

Gokul43201

I'm pretty sure most of those states don't have all 4 of the things I mentioned. For instance, OK doesn't have a National Park, while CO, WY, MN and ND don't have National Memorials.

Jasongreat

how about south dakota?

turbo

Custer would approve.

Gokul43201

So do I. The four things are the Black Hills National Forest, Mt Rushmore National Memorial, Badlands National Park and Buffalo Gap National Grassland - all in the far south-west corner of the state.



SD got a good bucketful of snow from the big snowstorm that swept through the Northwest and Upper Plain States last week, the high elevations in the hills getting over a foot. On Saturday, I drove past Rushmore on my way to the Willow Creek Trailhead, and hiked to the summit of Harney Peak, the highest point in the Black Hills, as well as in the state of SD, at 7240ft.



There are two trails to the top: the popular 3.5 mile northern approach with about 1000ft of elevation gain, and the completely neglected (and therefore much nicer, if you like the solitude) southern approach, which is about 5.5 miles long (one-way), and gains about 2500ft.



I took the path less traveled - turns out no one had traveled it since the snow had come, so I was breaking trail all the way up, which made it a better workout than the numbers would suggest. Saw some very neat rock formations along the way.



The summit has a sweet little stone tower on it, and I snuck inside, away from the winds, to eat my lunch, snap some pictures and head back down.



During my hike up, I had seen plenty of animal tracks (mostly deer and rabbit, no human tracks though), so it was nice to finally spot one of the culprits on the way down (yes, I had a late start, so it was dark when I got back to the car).



On Sunday, I hiked the Badlands, which turned out to be trickier in spots than I'd imagined. What made the hard parts hard (well, soft actually) was that the warmish weather (30s and 40s) of the last few days had led to some significant snowmelt. And many of the rock formations there are covered in a some kind of clay which turned into a super-slippery goo from the runoff. It was also pretty windy at times, with some strong gusts hitting me at a couple of tricky spots, so I was glad to have traction on my boots and my mountain axe for extra support. On a regular day, these would have been overkill, but under the conditions, they were somewhat helpful.



I read this trail description (of one of the trails I took that day) in their brochure after I got back to my car: "Strenuous. Very short but very steep, the Saddle Pass Trail is impassable after rains." Well, it hadn't actually rained, but it did somewhat mimic those conditions. In any case, I was glad to be there and see some beautiful formations. Again, there was not another soul on the trails, and I essentially had miles of parkland all to myself.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gokulpic...at=directlink#

Edit: Just remembered, on my way out of the Park, I also drove by the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, so that makes five national things in that part of the state.

Borek

I had to check:



And it sits there

I like the place. Especially the part about having it all to yourself.

fuzzyfelt

Stunning, and a great place for lunch!

lisab

Awesome, Gokul.